sweet 16

Happy 16th Birthday!

16 ways to describe our little guy Tuck...

~ handsome ~ dog owner ~ loved by his cousins ~

~ hunter ~ fisherman ~ game addict ~ snake charmer ~

~ casual dresser ~ life flight member & passenger ~ a family guy ~

~ awesome~seafood lover ~ tall & skinny ~ all around athlete ~ christian ~

~ accident prone ~

Love you.

fly away home

This is our 2nd year growing butterflies.
The boys love it.
It's inexpensive
easy
clean
and
just fascinating to watch.
We were excited to see that all 5 of our butterflies survived.
Last year we had a few "accidents" and if they weren't crippled or dead then
they needed to fly far away from our house and never come back.
Since it's not as new this year the boys did a lot better.
They all came out of their chrysalises over the weekend and since they only live
two short weeks, I like to set them free so they can enjoy a good life.
So it was time to release our beautiful Painted Lady's!

*c*e*l*e*b*r*a*t*e*

This last week we had many things to celebrate!

Friday the boys finished up VBS.

H-E-R-O-....God is my Hero was the song they would sing.

I loved seeing them make new friends, play with their old friends and tell me about the bible stories they learned each day.

Saturday we headed out to Melba to watch the huge firework display.

We were there with family and friends and had a good time.

The kids were so anxious for the fireworks to start but once it did

this is the only thing I would hear Ryan say...

"Dat was SO awwwwesome!"

They loved it!

Sunday we had a laid back day, grocery shopping and cleaning up the house.

The boys were even more anxious for our own fireworks.

They drove us crazy asking us, "Now how many hours?" all day long.

Finally it was time for the neighbors to come over and get things started.

The boys enjoyed every second of it!

One girl and three boys

Abigail was gone with her grandparents, we missed her

This picture is deceiving

So innocent and sweet but they have another side too

My little pyro

growing snakes or poop like Jason told them

smoke bombs

can't figure out why this is so entertaining to them

amanda took this picture and I love it

the kiddos watching the fireworks

they were so sweet sharing the chairs, not one fight

the boys are so amazed

Happy 4th of July!

JuMp

It's only Tuesday and we are tired around here.

Heath has the work pager and is working around the clock, double time already.

The boys have been at VBS each morning and then swimming each afternoon and

I'm just trying to keep up with all of them.

Here is a little about today.

This morning Ryan wanted to get some more toys out and I told him that we couldn't because we had to leave for vacation bible school. He said, "AGAIN" so I was bracing myself for the cries and pleas of not wanting to go but instead he said, "Oh, that is the best. Thanks mom!"

If we could of ended with that story for the day it would of been good but instead...

I hear before I even make it back to pick up Ryan from VBS that he had been slapped in the face by another kid. When I get to Ryan I ask him about what had happened and he explains something to me but I don't understand any of it. I asked again why the kid hit him and he said, "Well I hit him first and then he hit me but he got in trouble mom but not me."

Apparently if you don't get caught then you are still in the good?

Today was a special day though, the boys had their cousins here to play with in the pool.
The girls were there too and they even had their cousins, so it was a lot of fun!

I'm so happy that the boys have such awesome cousins!

The cousins Brooke and Tucker

Ryan and his upside down shark goggles

Cody and his favorite diving goggles

Our jumps!

So this girl here is off to Utah in 4 days!

She wants to experience life a little and go out and live on her own, get a job

and start college. We are so going to miss her around here but wish her nothing but the best!

Go and make us proud Brooke.

it's all good

Summer has been good to us, we are loving the sun.

Here is a look at what we have been doing lately.

Eating snow cones: root beer float and cotton candy were their first flavors of choice

Renting redbox movies: it's been fun getting caught up on all the movies that we've been wanting to see.

Toy Story 3: we went with the girls, Abigail and Cody thought it was a date.

The kids looked so cute all lined up in their seats eating popcorn and candy.

The play date didn't end there, we then went to WinCo for our dinner groceries.

Dinner was something new: grilled pizza and it was fabulous (thanks for sharing Krista)

Watching my garden slowly die: I don't know what's going on with it, I already replaced a couple of plants because I planted them the same day as a windstorm and they didn't make it but I still have things not looking so great. I started with 5 things (zucchini, squash, tomatoes, watermelon and pumpkins...so we will see what I end up with.

Swimming, swimming and more swimming: we have been going to the pool a lot and it's been so good for the boys. We have had many years worth of swimming lessons but still no swimmers so this year I said no lessons and lots of practice in the pool. Already in this short time the boys have come along way, my bets are on Luke to really learn how to swim first!

Cody said to Luke as he was laying on top of four pool noodles floating on top of the water, "Luke it looks like you are living the life!"

Luke said to one of his classmates in the pool, "Oh yeah, well I have a cousin and she is almost in college."

Ryan said to me as he was laying on his towel after swimming getting warmed up by the sun, "This is so sweet."

I'm still cleaning: I have the upstairs completely cleaned even though you wouldn't know by looking at it today, but it feels good.

Catching bee's" the boys love to try and catch them in plastic cups or bottles. Ryan is the best at this, he has no fear and I call him my bee whisperer. No stings so far.

Growing butterflies: I ordered more caterpillars, they are now in their cocoons so we can't wait for them to come out.

Homework: the boys have been doing a little each day to stay up on what they have learned. It's been fun doing it with them.

Vacation Bible School: the boys are going this week with the girls, I think they had a great time today.

Cousin time: Tucker came today, so the boys will have some extra entertainment for the next few days.

You would think with all of this, I would have at least one picture to share....but I don't. Next time!

Not too bad for the first month of summer vacation, can't wait to see what else is in store.

my ponytail

This little ponytail is what caused the boys to be all upset this morning.

I've started cleaning the house from top to bottom, room by room.

Carpets, blinds, windows, drawers, closets...all of it.

I thought that I would try pulling my hair back to keep it out of my face while I worked and

I was excited to find out that my hair had grown out long enough to be able to do it.

Ryan started crying the minute he saw me begging me to take it down telling me that he didn't like it he wanted my hair the other way.

I had to keep telling him, I'm the same mom just different hair.

We walked downstairs together and then Luke looked up and said,

"I don't like it. It doesn't look like you. You look like a different mom. Change it back."

Wow, who knew that my hair would be such a problem.

Little do they remember that when they were babies my hair was long, really long

and it was pulled back into a ponytail all the time, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

That was the whole reason I cut my hair short in the first place.

So here I am cleaning the window, me and my little ponytail.

The boys are looking forward to

Heath being off work

going to the movies

and a date

all happening tomorrow!

Go here to learn how to make the perfect ponytail

dads

What a weekend we had.
Saturday was the Cherry Festival, so we spent the whole day over in Emmett.
Our day started out early this year because Heath was running his first ever 10K.
Matt signed up also for the 10K while my mom did the 2 Mile run.
They all did SO wonderful, we were proud of them....what an accomplishment!
Now next year they will have a personal goal to beat and Luke decided he wants to run it too!
Our favorite runner

Heath, Matt and Dan (a family friend)

My mom and Roberta (Dan's wife)

Grammy running to the finish line...

She got 3rd place for her age group

Matt came in a little over a minute before Heath and received 2nd place for his age group.

Matt 1:00.52

Heath 1:02.35

Next year we think the boys need matching outfits like the guy on the left.

So proud of you Heath!

Cody asked that I take this picture of the boys while we were waiting for the race to finish.

After a huge breakfast, showers and change of clothes we were back down at the park. Matt & Summer along with my Mom & Dad had a church banquet to attend so they had to take off for the day. They looked so handsome all dressed up!

My Daddy and Mini-Phil

So even though it's the same rides every year, the kids still love it.

I think Luke and Cody will be ready to move up to some of the bigger rides next year.

I'm not a fan at all of carnival rides so I always worry that they will spend the rest of the day feeling sick like I used too, so I never encourage them to try all the rides.

Ryan on the other hand loves the rides where you sit in a vehicle and pretend to drive, honk the horn and go around and around.

No joke, he went on the same ride at least 20 times. The minute the ride would end he would run to get in line again. I would tell him over and over that he would have to wait in line, no crowding or running in front of other kids but every time when the gate opened he took off and raced for whatever vehicle he wanted to drive that time around.

The kid enjoyed every second of it though, he was cute.

The boys also enjoyed plenty of sweets like snow cones, cotton candy and ice cream.

The older boys were brave this year and tried out some new fun activities.

I so wish I would of brought my camera down to the park but I didn't want to carry it around and who knew this was the year they would decide to be so daring.

Cody took a turn riding a mechanical bull. He was hilarious to watch trying to keep his one hand up in the air until he eventually got thrown off. He made it 8 seconds though!

Luke tried out a jumping thing where he had a harness around his waste and would jump on a trampoline that would shoot him 20 or so feet up in the air. It took a lot of work for this light weight to do back flips, but he got it figured out. It was so funny watching him fly around.

Then Cody and Luke tried something I have never seen before.

The boys each got inside a giant plastic bubble that they would fill with air and seal up.

Then they would run around inside this ball (like a hamster) on a pool of water and never get wet. It was so cool to watch and looked like a lot of fun but definitely a lot of work too.

We were beat by the time we made it home that night.

Father's Day

We enjoyed a lazy morning on Sunday and then headed to town to look around the new sporting goods store (Heath's choice, it was his day) and then met up with my sister and her family for lunch.

Once we got home we crashed!

Our dinner consisted of this oh so yummy homemade (but not by me) Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pie!

Happy Father's Day to all those daddy's out there!

We think you are the best, Heath, Dad & Arnie!